City Council — Feb 26, 2025

Good evening and welcome. The Wednesday, February 26, 2025 City of Plantation City Council meeting is now called to order. The time is 6.50 p.m. Please find a seat. There are lots of seats in the front. Ms. Bego, please call the roll. Council Member Anderson. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Very good. And just so everybody's aware, normally we start off the meeting with a Pledge of Allegiance and remarks. We actually did that earlier during our CRA meeting in order to accommodate the students and the wonderful saxophonists. So if you missed that, I'm sorry if you can watch the replay. Instead, we're going to go right into our agenda, items submitted by the mayor. Mayor, you're up. Yes. So we have a special guest who arrived. Her name is Hazel Rogers, County Commissioner. You don't see her on the agenda, but when Hazel Rogers shows up, she's going to talk. So Hazel, you're first. I'll come sit by you. She's a County Commissioner in the north part of Plantation. We have two. We have Steve Geller and we have Hazel. Welcome, Commissioner. Thank you, Mr. President. How are you? Mayor, council members, city manager, city attorney, and your city manager? City clerk. City clerk. Okay. No city manager. No city manager. I forgot. Yeah. Yes. Strong mayor. That's right. All right. I'm not accustomed to a strong mayor. So it's good to be here. And as the mayor stated, he was going to stand beside me. I just knew he was. I got a bottle of water in there for her, too. Especially. He asked me, coffee, tea, or water? So I selected water. So it's just good to be here. And of course, I've seen you at events, but not in your commission chambers. And it's good to be here. And Tim, it's a pleasure always, because we serve on the same MPO board. What happened? They moved you? He's an officer. Yeah. You made it. Yeah. Okay. Yes. He made it. Okay. So I did not know I would be losing a good relationship. All right. Because when my computer is not working, his arm is already over there helping me to navigate. But I know you have a long meeting tonight. I just wanted to stop in and say hello and to let you know that we're doing awesome things at the county. The biggest one was that smelly garbage that we had to make a decision on. Don't know where you stand on that issue, but we know we have to prepare for the future. We cannot consider and talk about growth, housing, and all of the development and not think about what we're going to do with our bricks and all of that trash that we generate. So that was done. And hopefully we will be moving on. I am always supportive of our children. So there's an event that we call Taking Our Kids to Tallahassee for Children's Week. So if you're interested, I'm coordinating a group to go to Tallahassee this year. Are you saying you're going to take our children with you? Is that... Commissioner? Commissioner? I take any child that you pay for. It's running about $1,000. Okay? All right. So we do that and love to do the nearing commissioners for a day so our kids can understand what we do here. Instead of shattering me, just come with me and you will see. Sit on the dais. Meet those rules. And of course, we have a grant program that it's not the first time the county has been awarded a grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund Initiative. So we're all into this environmental stuff. We need to expose our children. The grant is available, open on the 15th of March. So please call my office if you need details. And of course, Children's Week. Oh, I touched all of that already. Always a pleasure to be here. But I need to see our children in those programs. Okay? Those STEM programs. We need to make sure. And to everyone, the workforce will be changing. I've been pushing back. I do not go into these experts lane that I check myself out because I know I'm losing a real employee whenever I do that, whenever I encourage it. I know it's happening. But that's just my way of protesting. So I'm still waiting on long lines to check out in the grocery store. Just protesting in my own way. Congratulations on reggae genealogy. Oh, yes. The mayor knows that I was dancing. We were all having a good time at reggae genealogy. Put up your hand. Where's my picture? Where's my picture? All right? We were dancing across the fence. Jennifer, you know, it's reggae. We understand. That's our culture. Sure. Okay? The music tells a story. And it's all about humanities, too. So thank you for being there. Thank you for hosting and being partners with that event. We can't wait for a permanent home for, I know, the mayor, you told me you don't want to lose that museum. Okay? So we're looking for permanent homes. I will always speak to developers coming in. Just know how to ask for a permanent home for a nice organization. I thank you. Thank you very much, Commissioner. Mayor, you have a lot on your agenda here. I do. I have a full thing. Wonderful thing. So first off, if we could do the 5th Annual DJ Lou Birthday Giveback Event. Lewis is here. All right. Oh. So we have a proclamation. We have a good event coming up. Whereas DJs with the cause is honored to announce that Super Skilled will host the 5th Annual DJ Lou Birthday Giveback Event, February 28th. Whereas this event celebrates inclusion, diversity, and accessibility for all. Whereas DJ Lou, who tragically lost his parents and brothers a child, shares, Losing my family was one of the hardest things I've ever faced, but it taught me the power of community and the strength within. Whereas this year's event will include a party mix by DJ Lou for kids with disabilities, a workshop for students with disabilities, dancing games, and interactive entertainment, school supplies, and training for staff, students, and families. And whereas Louis Martinez, founder of DJs with the cause, stated, we're honored to host this at Super School, celebrating the amazing achievements of students. And whereas DJs with the cause is a nonprofit that combines music with philanthropy to create impactful events that bring joy to communities. Now, therefore, I, Nick Soto, Mayor, and the Councilmembers of Plantation, hereby proclaim Friday, February 28th, as DJ Lou's Birthday Giveback Day. Do you want to tell people about it for a second? Thank you, sir. I just want to, first of all, say thank you to God for allowing me another day of life. It was mentioned I did lose my parents and my brother when I was younger from an illness. And I'm here because of a miracle. And I want to just say thank you to my family, my friends, and my team. My actual birthday is actually tonight. But I decided to come here because it's very important to what we want to do here at DJ Lou's Giveback Event. For the last five years, we've given back to the community. I've used my influence as a DJ to create these love block parties. This year, however, something more special because we're talking about individuals and kids that don't have inclusion, that have disabilities, and together with Super School, which is right here in your neighborhood, Super School Plantation, we're not only asking you to support this event on Friday, we're asking you to support the school. They're a 511C3 nonprofit. It's a school that is dedicated. They're there Monday to Friday, sometimes seven days a week. And I have here, Victoria, one of their volunteers to speak a little bit more about their vision. Good afternoon. Super School is a non-profit. It's okay. Go ahead. Take a breath. Super School is a non-profit organization based on helping kids with disabilities get to their full potential. It's helping them educationally and therapeutic. They're always welcoming donations, volunteers, and anything that can help out the kids, the teachers, and the families. Thank you for sharing. That was fair and fair. So it will be this Friday. Let me just take out the information of the school. So Super School Plantation, the event will be this Friday starting at 12 p.m. The DJing and the activities will be from 1 p.m. through 2 p.m. We do have a limit to how many volunteers can be there. So we just ask you to either contact the school or you could go ahead and just contact me to iloveave.org or djswithacons.org. And let me just take out the address right here of Super School. And once again, not only are we asking for help during this event, which will be this Friday, but we're asking for an all-time partnership with the City of Plantation and that school. They just are amazing people. As you can see right here, we have this amazing young lady that, you know, they're just very dedicated. I, myself, I work for Epilepsy Alliance Florida, and how I met them was given all the school staff trainings on what to do if a seizure happens. They had 11 students that had seizures in a very short time period. I don't know if you guys know what seizures are, but it's a very impactful thing that could, you know, it could end someone's life. And I, myself, had to go there as a trainer, and now I'm going back as a DJ. So it's just an amazing thing that we're going to be doing. So the address of Super School will be 4343 West, Sunrise Boulevard, Plantation, Florida, CITCO 33313. Thank you so much, Mayor, and thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Colorectal cancer. Yep. Thank you for doing this. This is a big deal. Yes. Whereas colorectal cancer is second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. among men and women, whereas colorectal cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented with screening, whereas colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer death for men and second for women under the age 50, whereas American Indian, Alaska Natives, and black Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer. You guys are making this hard on me. Whereas colorectal cancer is expected to account for 12% of cancer deaths, whereas Americans in rural areas are more likely to be diagnosed, whereas in 2024 there were approximately 152,000 new cases, whereas the national goal established by National Colorectal Roundtable is to increase timely colorectal cancer screening, whereas observing a colorectal cancer awareness month during the month of March would provide a special opportunity to increase awareness. Therefore, I, Nick Soto, Mayor, and the City Council Plantation, hereby proclaim the month of March 2025 as Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Clap. First off, I want to say thank you all for seeing this and allowing this to happen. And my second and one of the most important things, if you are over 45 or you know anyone over 45, to please, please get screened or get them to get screened. As it was already said, colorectal cancer is one of the deadliest cancers in America, but it's still one of the most preventable. And one out of three Americans nowadays are not getting screened, which this is quite literally a lifesaver. Sorry. Tell us your name. Huh? Before you go to school. You got a school? Tell us your name. My name is Gabriel Gajdek, and I go to South Plantation High School. That's a great school. Welcome to the council. What attracted you to this material? Oh, well, my mom, when I was eight years old, she was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer. She at the time didn't think of her age that she would be able to be diagnosed, but she was wrong. And when they finally did diagnose it, it was already very late into the thing. And we weren't even sure if she would have survived. And I really want to do this because I was lucky enough for her to survive. I don't want, there are some people who don't get that luxury of having a family. Or some people are left without a mother, a brother, or a father just to this very preventable sickness. And that's why I really want to do this so everybody can survive and not die from it. Good job. Who's here with you? Do you want them to come up for a picture as well? Is that your mom? Yeah. Yeah, welcome to your mom. Blue is the color of colorectal cancer. And since March is colorectal cancer, we would ask if you can wear some more blue. And March 7 is a wear blue day. So please, just to spread awareness and get screened. I'll wear it at the North Carolina Duke game. Thank you. I was fortunate enough to read this at their services Wednesday. I mean, yeah, Sunday. Sunday. And I have never laughed so much at a church service as I did at their service on Sunday. It was the most friendly, happy. And the congregants actually sing. You know, like, Lewis, you might have been at some places where the people kind of mouth the words and pat a moment. They let it rip. They just, you know, they look at the person who can't sing next to them and they go, it's going to be your problem. I'm singing. Okay, here we go. Plantation United was initiated in 1959 with members meeting at Parkway Middle. It became a church on February 28, 1960. We're celebrating 65 years. It was a vacant lot at 1001 Northwest 10th Street. And it's grown to a landmark sanctuary with stained glass windows, pipe organ, administrative office, and music wing. And whereas they strive to reach their goals as seekers and students, and they've always fostered Christian education. And in 65 years, they've had 33 pastors. They're proud to stand on the shoulders, two African Americans, several women, and numerous associates and training pastors. And more than 10 church members have become pastors. And the church's well-known music program, praise band, youth band, chancel choir. The church has established mission and outreach programs that include an annual pumpkin patch. Good photos there. Yep. Preschool activities, open food pantry. And the church has fostered programs of adding local, state, and worldwide programs and initiatives. And Plantation United Methodist Church has promoted interfaith conversations by being partners and providing leadership to the Plantation Association of Clergy. Plantation initiated a service that honors Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, provides scholarships to students, and it hosts the Good Friday service and the traditional Thanksgiving service and the mayor's prayer breakfast. Okay, this is the big part. Whereas Plantation United Methodist Church has been a church for all people for 65 years, thriving as a community of multi-ethnic, multicultural, and gender-equal patrons, encouraging members, visitors, and associates to build bridges to share God's love and fellowship with the community and with the world at large. Therefore, I, Nick Soto, and the council members of Plantation, hereby proclaim Sunday, February 23rd, Plantation United Methodist Church Day. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, and it is a pleasure, and I do stand on the shoulders of so many pastors that have gone before us. But the United Methodist Church is a global church that reaches out to all God's people. I want to also tonight invite everyone, Sunday, 9 o'clock, 11 o'clock, but most importantly, to know that we are partners with you as a city, that we are here to build, to heal, and to look to the future. Thank you. Yes, I'll introduce you. Mr. Doug Scroggins, head of our leadership council, and Mr. Spence, head of our financial as well as our generosity campaign. Come on down, procurement, or come on up. Who's that? Charles and Charles and Charles. Okay. So we have a university plantation where we try to educate people about how our city works, and always one of the most popular sessions is procurement, and you just finished it, and the idea that we want to get a fair price on things, and I can't just give business to my brother-in-law. Obviously, right? So that's procurement. Whereas the public procurement profession plays a significant role in efficiency and effectiveness of government, whereas procurement professionals add value to the organization by performing such functions as executing, implementing, and administering contracts, whereas public procurement professionals in the city of Plantation have tremendous influence on economic conditions in the U.S., whereas procurement department of Plantation is committed to providing high-caliber, strategic, logical, and operational support of all departments, whereas the procurement department and the city of Plantation recognize, support, and practice public procurement values, whereas NIGP has proclaimed the month of March as procurement month to further expand awareness of the procurement professional's role to government officials. Therefore, I, Nick Sertle, and the city council of Plantation hereby proclaim the month of March as procurement month and March 12th as procurement professionals day. Thank you. As you all know, I'm never a loss of words. My team is not here tonight because March is actually procurement month, so we're going to reserve our words in March, and we're going to come back to you with a slew of activities and achievements that have been accomplished by our team here in Plantation, so be ready for that. Thank you, everyone. It is my honor to read Wilma's Retirement Proclamation. Wilma's here somewhere? Come on down. Supervisors want to come with you or anything? Or not? Okay. For those of you who don't know, this is Wilma Wilesa. Wilesa? Wilesa. And this is Matt Thompson, Public Works Director. 20 years. 20 years. And he wouldn't be here if it weren't for her. He'd be unemployed. Right. Okay. A proclamation of appreciation to Wilma Wilesa for 21 years of dedicated service. Whereas Wilma was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, Wilma moved to Florida in February 1978. Whereas Wilma began working for the City of Plantation February 17, 2004, and is proud to have kept the Hanson program updated and running smooth for everyone. Whereas Wilma has been married to Scott for almost 45 years, Wilma met Scott playing co-ed softball. Wilma's one daughter named Leanne, who's married to Brandon Pickering, and she has four grandchildren. Caden is 18, Cameron is 15, Jace is 9, and Cole is 7. Wilma loves ice hockey, the Panthers, home projects, and crafts. Wilma's been a proud member of the Employee Benefits Committee for many years. Whereas after 21 years of service, Wilma announced her retirement effective February 26, 2025. Wilma plans on relaxing, gardening, playing pickleball, and maybe volunteer at a wild animal shelter. But no snakes or lizards, right? Now, therefore, I, Nick Silverman, City Council and Plantation, hereby express our gratitude and appreciation to Wilma for her dedicated service to the City. As is her right, Wilma declines comment. Next up, we have service awards. Five years, Adrian Thomas. You want to say anything? Uh, no. Don't have to. Okay. Utilities. Ten years, Tyler Staley. Ten years, here we go. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anything you want to say? I appreciate it. I'm good. Thank you, guys. Detective Division, right? I am, yes. Auto theft. Auto theft. There you go. Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you. Fifteen years, Michael Ambrosio. Thank you. Good for this here? You know that? A little bit. You good? You got to say something. I have probably about a 25-minute speech that I'm not going to give. It's been a pleasure the last 15 years serving our community, and you guys are stuck with me for at least another 22. We'll take it. We will take it. Twenty years, Shane Highfield. Police. Who would have thought this better? That's amazing. That's amazing. Thanks. I don't have a long speech. I just wanted to say thank you. It's been an honor serving for the city of Plantation. I have the greatest leader, Chief Harrison, above me, and he has the greatest leadership that just somebody in the police department can follow. So he makes it easy. But thank you very much, and I look forward to serving many more years. Thank you. Way before he became a police officer, Shane worked at Sun Sentinel with us as a clerk, and everybody. He was known as Young Shane. Thank you for changing careers. You made a light move. Library. McMuss. That's my library was here. Oh, my goodness. I know. I thought I was in that today. Anything you want to say? Yeah, I have some. It's very short, though, I promise. Good evening. I would like to thank the mayor and the council members for the recognition of my 20 years of service tonight. It's an honor working for the city of Plantation. I was born and raised, so it's close to my heart. To the team at the Helen B. Hoffman Library, thank you. Thank you to Monica Knapp, our director, for her leadership, and to all my coworkers, I am truly grateful for all of you. And lastly, thank you to the friends of the library and all of our patrons for their continued support, and another 20. Thank you. So we have one more that's a little special. 40 years. 40 years. Can you guess who it is? Okay, I'll tell you. His first name is Daniel, and his second name is Polio. I think there were some retirees who came. Did they make it or not? We have a previous utilities director over here, Hank Breitenkamp. Yes, thank you for coming. 29 years with the city. We invited Hank. We thought it would be good for you to see him, and people have preceded you. Yeah, we're reaping some of the benefits and stuff that he, him and previous directors had come up with. I'll take everybody's time back since they yielded it, so I'm only going to be here a couple of minutes. I do have a couple people to thank. I wasn't going to, I didn't say much at my previous pins, and I didn't think too much about this one until the phone calls started coming in. It was pretty wild. So it made me stop and think about a couple of things. So, here we go. It's day 15,695 of my employment as an emergency services professional. Day 14,626 of my employment with the city of Plantation, and day 1,030 serving as Plantation's utilities director. Two-thirds of my life has been spent here. That was a little shocking. I only thought this was going to be a temporary gig when I came here at 20 years old. I've worked for a majority or worked with a majority of the folks on these walls here, five mayors, 26 council members, and four directors. I've learned something from each and every one of them. I have to thank my wife and daughter and my family for putting up with the emergency services life, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and those 2 a.m. phone calls. They've put up with it all. My amazing staff that I work with, the utilities department, as with all the departments in the city, I work with a unique group of individuals and they are fantastic. The city is extremely fortunate to have them on their staff and I couldn't be more proud to work with them. To my superiors, both present and past, it blew my mind when I saw Hank walk in tonight. I want to thank them for their support, knowledge, and taking the time to show me the right way. I've learned a lot from them and I'm continuing to learn throughout my 40-year career. To the group of department heads that sit in the back of the room every other Wednesday night and at their desks or phones 24-7 whenever you need them, it's been a pleasure for me to work closely with them these last few years. Mayor, council members, thanks for your support and confidence that you've all shown me. I know we're all going to continue to make good things happen for Plantation now and in the future. I've gained an extended family here after 40 years. Lifelong friends, brothers, sisters, and everything in between. I'm truly fortunate to have all the opportunities afforded to me by the city and to be able to say that I still love what I do is something not everyone can honestly say in their career choices. It's been and it remains a pleasure and a privilege to work for and continue to be part of this incredible team here at Plantation. So thank you all. I thought it'd be bigger. That way? This way? Everybody this way, one step? There we go. All right. Thank you. So we bought some cookies for utilities there in the break room. We'll have somebody welcome Aaron if you want to have a quick visit with your co-workers. All right. Thank you. Great. Thanks. Can somebody from utilities grab them? Anybody? Laura, can you get them? Those that are leaving, if you can leave quietly, please, so we can continue our business. Next up is Director Tricia O'Toole, Parks and Recreation, upcoming events. Chief, if you could close the doors, that would be great. Thank you very much. Just give them another 30 seconds here. Director, you're up. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Some upcoming events in the Parks and Rec Department. This Saturday, it is for the Dr. Seuss birthday celebration, but that's happening at the Plantation Community Center. Next Friday, March 7th, is our next Rock the Park concert from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Pine Island Park. Saturday, March 8th, we've got our family bike ride starting at 11 a.m. at the Plantation Community Center. In our tennis division this Friday night, we have our Glow in the Dark tennis event from 7 p.m. to 9.15 p.m. Saturday, March 1st and Sunday the 2nd, we've got a USTA Junior Tournament. Friday, March 7th, we've got a tennis exhibition from 6.30 to 8.30. In our aquatics division on Monday, March 3rd, our session one of swim lessons begin. That is a tongue twister, but they're starting on Monday. Our athletics division this Saturday, we've got the 2025 Hero Cup. This is an event hosted by the South Florida Frisbee Dogs. It's taking place at PAL Park. It's a long distance throw and catch Frisbee Dog competition. It's pretty fun to watch. Also on Saturday, March 1st, is PAL Recreational Baseball Opening Day at Central Park. For PAL, we're currently registering for cheerleading and in our adult athletics, we're registering for kickball and flag football. I wanted to make a quick announcement before I'm done. We've got some exciting news this afternoon. Is Michael back? Okay, he's back. We found out that our community garden at Jim Ward Community Center won the Broward Nature Scape Emerald Award. So, kudos. Kudos to everyone involved there. This was awarded for its use of water conservation practices, native plant species, landscape features that support wildlife, birds, and insects. I have to thank the Parks Division for helping to build it, our Recreation Division for programming it, and of course all the other departments that made it happen, public works, planning, zoning, administration. We're going to be recognized on March 8th at Tree Tops Park at the Water Matters Day. So, exciting news I wanted to share with you all. Thank you very much, Director. We're now going to move into public requests of counsel regarding municipal affairs. Some directions for everybody. We have a lot of people that signed up to speak. Those who wish to speak, we request that you complete a speaker form. If you have not done so already, please do. When you are called and you approach the podium, please state your name and address, and please address your remarks to the council president, not the mayor, nor individual members of the council. Please keep your remarks to the allotted three minutes. If extra time will be needed to conclude your remarks, please ask for it as your time is expiring and not prior to beginning your remarks. And first up, we're going to call up two South Plantation High School students, Michaela and Leila, and they're going to be talking about composting. Come right up to the front. There may or may not be some council members that went to South Plantation High School. Okay, you are up. Go ahead, say your name and your address, and make sure that green light is on. There you go. My name is Leila Fane. My name is Michaela Lai. And your address? Home address? Yes. 1-2-1-0-0 Northwest 23rd Court, Plantation. 1-0-4-1-5 Northwest 31st Court, Sunrise. Great, thank you. Go ahead. Hello, my name is Michaela Lai. And my name is Leila Fane. We are seniors and a part of the magnet program at South Plantation High School. During our senior year, we are required to complete a senior project in which students will produce and implement their own practice or policy to help benefit the environment. As a result, we chose to implement a composting service in the city of Plantation to help reduce food waste which leads to climate change. Food waste is organic waste that is thrown away with regular waste which is then transported into a landfill. The waste is then incinerated in the landfill which produces methane emissions causing global warming contributing to climate change. This leads us to our project which not only solves the problem with food waste but which will benefit the economy, create a sustainable living area, reduce food waste, and overall reduce climate change. The idea of implementing a composting service would take a ton of steps and planning which is why we plan on getting help from multiple sources. The Sustainability Board of Plantation has agreed to help us planning this idea into the city. We are also looking for services that would help implement this practice. These services include Filthy Organics, Renewable, and more. However, we are still reaching out to find the best service that would accommodate the city. In regarding funding to implement this project, there are ways composting services could be offered including residential pickup, community drop-off bins in public places, and more. These ideas would all go for different prices. However, we have spoken to Jairo Gonzalez, the president of Filthy Organics, a composting non-profit program, and he has said that he is willing to give us the money to start a pilot program which would last six months and begin with 50 residents of the community. This exact same pilot program is currently now being used in the city of Coconut Creek and has been extremely successful. If the city of Plantation approves this proposal, it would be one of the many cities in South Florida that have implemented the composting program. These cities include City of Davie, Deerfields, Cooper City, Coral Springs, and Hollywood. We have also conducted an interest survey which only residents of the city of Plantation have filled out. This survey was created in 24 hours and in 24 hours we have had about 85 respondents. In those 85 respondents, 25% have claimed that they previously compost. 70% have claimed that they would be interested in participating in a composting program. This survey consists of magnet families and staff, a part of South Plantation High School, members of the community, peers, and friends. In addition to this, the Organics Recycling Foundation and Filthy Organics has agreed to partner with us and help fund the pilot program for six months as long as the city is willing to collaborate. As a result, we are asking the city to implement a composting service in our community. Thank you for listening to our proposal and we hope you consider implementing the service. We are aware we are still missing multiple key aspects of this project. However, we are open to answering any questions you may have. Fantastic. Thank you so much. I will tell you before I call the mayors that I think this is wonderful and I definitely would like to see if we have any type of consensus on at least exploring it further. Mayor, you have chimed in. Go ahead. Thank you so much for bringing the energy to this. This is something that is inevitable and we have to figure out the right way to do it. Sustainability has worked on it and we already have something coming down the pike. I don't have the exact details but I think you guys should talk to Carol, please, over there. And let's see if we, either you will recruit her or she'll recruit you and we'll find a way. Thank you. Go ahead. One moment. We've got Council Member Hoyland. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, ladies. What I wanted to ask you is the partnership with Filthy Organics, would that be a drop-off or would it be a pickup service? It would be a drop-off. If we want to do a pickup service, we could. However, doing the drop-off would save the residents and the City of Plantation a ton of money. So I just, you know, to the mayor's point, we have been talking about doing a pilot program. So I'm sitting on the Executive Board of the Solid Waste Authority of Broward County where we're trying to figure out what to do with the trash and recycling. And I will tell you that at our last meeting, this is a big topic of conversation. Waste Management, who is one of the big haulers, has agreed to take all of the organics out of the landfill and start taking them to Okeechobee to be disposed, removing the methane out of the landfill here. But it's something that we're looking long-term in Broward County implementing because there is a lot of interest. And so I'm happy that you're doing this and I hope that you will talk to Ms. Morris and get some more information for us. Okay? Thank you. One moment. Council Member Andrea. Thank you, ladies, for coming and presenting. We absolutely have been talking about this topic for quite a while. I filled out your survey. I already composted. But I would like to see it throughout the city. And I don't know if you were here when Commissioner Rogers was here earlier, but there is a grant available. So I'm going to forward that information to you because this would be a wonderful grant idea and could provide the funding maybe for the at-home pickup, which is proven probably to be a little bit more successful than even having to drop off. So I will forward that to you. And I know that you're going to continue to do great things and get an A on this project. And thank you. And with your assistance, maybe you'll push us right over to getting this in our city. So thank you very much. Thank you both. Thank you. Next up, Mr. Conklin. Dennis Conklin, 4581 Northwest 6th Court. Heavenly hosts protect you and your families. Hat tip to Dan Paulio for the daily countdown. As to the last speakers, one of the new directors of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is featuring instances like composting and other processes for making America healthy again. So you might want to plug them into that as well. It's day 1,804 since the lockdown and loss of our First Amendment rights and our individual liberties from God. It's 508 days since the Hamas war against Israel. It's 507 days since the Hezbollah war against Israel. 309 days since the organized college jihad spread across America's colleges and into our cities, threatening not only college campuses but also synagogues and individuals of Jewish faith. It is day 229 since the first assassination attempt of our president. It's 165 days since the second attempt at the assassination of President Trump. It's 114 days since his landslide re-election and appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Director. And it's day 38 of the Trump second administration. As I mentioned during the CRA and the possibility of affordable housing, the reason we're facing this is because we uncoupled the dollar to a standard of value. It happened in 72. They closed the gold window. Prior to that, FDR President Roosevelt made it illegal for Americans to own gold. And in 72, shortly after they closed the gold window, they quit silver in our coins. So I didn't see gold removed. I saw gold notes floating around when I was a kid and a young adult. But I was very much aware when they pulled the silver out of our coins. That lets you know that the dollar is not worth a plugged nickel. I mentioned it closed now a year and a half ago and it's 56.5% less purchasing power. So we really need to get on to the Article 1, Section 10 and that is providing for states to provide for gold and silver as legal tender that will make the federal government restore value. And I yield back time. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Coughlin. Charles Spence, double appearance tonight. Double appearance, right. Charles Spence, 217 Northwest 101st Avenue, Plantation, 33324. So I'm here this evening or tonight because a couple months ago I woke up one morning and I saw my street flooded and only to find out later on that it was the rooting system that actually created a burst pipe. And so I got concerned because what I realized is that those beautiful oak trees that are, you know, planted along the different streets providing shade and making the city cool does or could have a problem underneath and nobody or I'm not sure if anybody's actually paying attention to what's happening underneath. So I'm not sure the rooting system works. So I'm concerned in the sense that I'm not sure if it's been checked, if they're being checked and what may happen in the next couple of years considering that these trees are not mature and so we could be having problems in other communities similar to what I had in my community in Sunset Cove. Some of my neighbors have expressed concern as well in the sense that some of these trees are close to their property and chances are it could be creating damage and we're not seeing it. So I'm just appealing Mr. Chairman to the council to have a look at it. I'm no expert in terms of engineering nor an arborist or whatever but I'm concerned about my property and the fact that it could be affected later on as it relates to the plumbing and maybe to the electrical as well considering that most of it is underground. I yield back. Thank you Mr. Spence and this is a topic that we have talked about quite a bit here and it's an ongoing issue throughout the city. I did see Mr. Thompson our public works director stand up and I am going to ask if you'll just come forward just for a moment unless you are yielding to somebody else who you wanted to speak and maybe if you can just give us an update on how our city is responding to some of these issues with trees that were planted many years ago maybe shouldn't have been planted and what's going on. Yes, thank you. Matt Thompson public works director good evening council mayor city attorney yes to answer your question Mr. Spence we are very aware we're actively in the communities every day doing tree assessments we're right now in the process of collecting all the city trees throughout the city. these are issues that we're dealing with every day a lot of damage to infrastructure sidewalk replacement driveway apron replacement administration is very aware of it but we're all collectively working together to come up with a long term solution that's sustainable and resilient for the city. So rest assured if you'd like to speak outside I'd be more than willing to talk to you but you're singing music to my ears I eat, sleep and breathe this every day so no worries we're on it. Mr. Thompson one just follow up on that is that can you also clarify because I happen to know where Mr. Spence lives is that what if you're in a homeowner if you have a homeowner's association if it's a tree that is overgrown it's tearing up the street the sidewalks and you're in a HOA community yeah so most likely if you're in a private HOA you're going to want to get with your HOA board and they're going to have to go through our landscape department over at planning and zoning and follow the steps to remove the tree mitigate the area and then repair the damage that was caused from the root structure but we can help you go through that process and Michael Alpert from planning and zoning is here so again we can give you all the information and contacts tonight that will get you on that course okay great thank you very much you're welcome so next before I before I call on the next next two that have requested to speak I want to point out is that the next two speakers asked to speak on item number 13 number 13 is an administrative item and an administrative item is up for discussion which we may or may not have a motion or take any action on an administrative item so I'm going to call I'm going to call you call the individuals up in public comments if we do end up having a motion on the item hopefully you've already spoken to the extent that you needed to hear so that we don't need to repeat the same items if you feel that you need to we'll have opportunity for public comments so let's call up first Jim Romano thank you Mayor thank you City Council members Jim Romano 4601 Harding Street in Hollywood Florida past Parks Recreation Director for 20 years with the city and 34 years all total with the City of Plantation and before we get started I just want to congratulate Matt Thompson he used to be our park foreman at Central Park when I was working and I'm glad to see he moved through the ranks he's done a great job and it sounds like he's fitting right in here with the City of Plantation okay earlier today I forwarded to you a copy of the revenue based on a membership a resident membership I sent you the revenue cost for that I should say the revenue generated by that one of the concerns that I heard was that 20% for the employees and or the retirees was too much of a discount 20% was based off the federal recommendation at the time when we implemented these fees so the $680 if it comes off of the $3,400 for the membership for the plantation resident it comes out to a $2,720 revenue I believe the golf course and the city would rather have the $2,720 in their pocket than having to lose the $2,720 for the year when you talk about the $2,720 if you include the number of rounds the cart fees that they pay it's $2,444 when you talk about the beverages and lunch etc it comes out to approximately $940 these are per year these are conservative numbers the pro shop purchases you know basically for golf balls and a couple of plantation preserve shirts comes out to about $590 and then if you bring a guest which typically everybody brings a guest if you bring a guest four times a year that's an additional $352 Sunday brunches if you go with your spouse or whoever if you go four times a year that's $200 and then holiday dinners there's Mother's Day Father's Day Easter Thanksgiving etc and they're about $50 plus plus totals $400 so all totaled revenue if you add up the $2720 and the $4926 from all the extra revenues when the golfers do come out to the golf course it comes out to a total of $7,646 these are estimates mind you but conservative estimates and I just think that when you run an enterprise fund like the golf course is it is important for the city to have that extra $7,600 so that that way the golf course can continue to thrive and grow as the community grows so with that I want to thank you very much for your time tonight I hope that we'll be able to consummate a positive thing and get the benefit back to the employees and to the retirees thank you very much thank you Lanny Stearns good evening council mayor I want to speak to another aspect of the question tonight the difference between what you guys consider a resident and a now not a non resident but a Florida resident the price is significant and if you've spent a lot of time in the city as I have and most of the retired people you're talking about like Danny Polio we spent a lot of time doing other things in the city besides just working here myself I spent 20 years in Plantation's PAL program as a football coach commissioner president of the PAL put a lot of time in there I've been a volunteer fireman in the volunteer fire association since 1981 my kids went to school here they went through all the PAL programs my wife was also a coach and commissioner on the plantation board and we lived here for 35 years so I changed jobs and had to move out of the Broward County area coming back I've just recently come back and I found a home that was not in plantation but still a retired person here and I put in a lot of time my whole life my kids lives my wife's life has been city of plantation and to be reclassified because I happen to live outside the city at this time to Florida resident I'd like you to consider not doing that I think it's important that we respect our retired people and give them the just do that they deserve for being in this city for all this time and putting their lives out here with their families and doing the things stepping up where we don't get a lot of people to step up these days to coach football coach track coach things that they need to do when their kids are here and I want you to remember that when you make your decisions tonight about these items thank you thank you very much any other requests to speak from the council chambers miss bernardy lori bernardy 11681 northwest 6th street good evening I want to thank everyone I think it was about two years ago that kathleen and I had brought up the idea of putting the vinyl on those utility boxes because we saw the other cities were doing it and we loved the idea and I was so happy to see it in the mayor's message that it was going to start and I came back into town and what did I see on Pine Island but the utility boxes have started and I hope it continues because I really think not that it's a beautiful beautifier for the city but it does add something and it was very nice driving down Pine Island and seeing that the project had started and I hope we can continue so thank you for that little bit of magic in the city have a nice evening thank you very much any other requests to speak from the council chambers any commenters online hearing none public requests of the council regarding municipal affairs are now closed we'll now move to the consent agenda the consent agenda consists of items 1 through 12 and may be approved with one motion does any member of the council wish to pull an item 3 I also have 3 any other items I also see from the public items 4 and 11 do I have a motion for 2 5 6 7 8 9 10 and 12 so moved second hearing a first and a second Ms. Bedwell please call the roll councilmember Andreu yes councilmember Fradgen yes councilmember Horland yes councilmember Anderson yes councilmember Einstein yes first up we have item number one resolution of support for florida recreational trails project grant and councilmember Andreu pulled that first thank you president Reinstein so we had we received several e-comments and I want to thank all those residents who sent us e-comments regarding this grant and I think we are really excited to support this my comment is though well I wanted to know when we would find out the results of the grant and then also as Ms. Morris makes her way up do we have a plan B I hope we're successful in receiving grant funding but if not I want us to have a contingency plan so that we still rectify these bridges Carol Morris Assistant City Administrator good evening first of all on this grant application this is handled much like a FURDAP grant that I think most of you are familiar with we will be ranked and then somewhere down the line towards the end of the year we'll know what funding is allocated and where we stand that said I'm going to lean on Trish as to plan B I know we do have some funds in the budget I know that her original suggestion was somewhat less expensive but I'll let her speak to that but Miss Morris will you have a definitive answer by December we should you should we should good evening again Trisha O'Toole Parks and Rec Director so as part just to give you a little update the proposal I gave to you all during the strategic plan that called for repairing the island bridge and creating piers out of the Y bridge in public meetings that we held overwhelming support wanted to save both bridges so with the priority given to the Y bridge so that's what the grant application will be for I spoke to city administration earlier this week about still requesting funding in the budget in the event we don't get the grant we'll still be able to proceed with the plan and then possibly in 27 apply for the same grant to repair the island bridge so the main goal is to save them both but first priority will be the Y bridge and if we don't get the grant hopefully there'll be additional funds in the budget to move forward perfect that's exactly what we were hoping to hear motion to approve second and we have some public comments and thank you very much director and thank you Ms. Morris because some people may recall that myself and others on the council had brought up these bridges during your predecessor's term and this was sought to go in a different direction back then and after really expressing our interest that the importance of these bridges to so many of our residents so it's nice to see that how responsive our departments are and so thank you on that Donna McCormick talk into it thank you Jason I know Donna McCormick 1201 Northwest 114th Avenue Plantation I just would like to publicly thank park and rec director Trish O'Toole for reaching out to Plantation Acres Homeowners Association attending our monthly meeting to discuss this grant proposal Ms. O'Toole did a great presentation she fielded many questions she took our feedback into consideration in crafting the grant proposal and she never missed a beat in presenting tonight what we would like to see approved so I hope you vote to approve this resolution and we look forward to getting additional funding to make sure that we save both bridges thank you very much thank you very much Lizette Hampton 11460 Northwest 8th Street really I'm here to say thank you thank you to so no I'll start out by saying that I have been serving in the Parks and Recreation advisory for three years and that the difference between the previous director and the current director is like day and night congratulations in making the decision to hire Trish because she is she's really serving our community so I also want to say thank you to you the council to the mayor to Jason for listening to our concerns in plantation acres and the desire and actually I have come to find out that the entire many residents in the city of plantation who go to volunteer park do want to see those bridges preserved so I want to thank you for making it possible to save the bridges every major city in the world is known for its green spaces so we want to be one of those thank you again and thank you Trish thank you very much Lori Bernardi good evening again nature they don't make it anymore most cities don't even care to preserve it but ours has and that is one of the beautiful draws about plantation the grass is greener we still have a lot of trees in our city along the streets and neighborhood yards more importantly we are proud of our beautiful parks we have 42 parks in our city in fact volunteer park and its equestrian center is very unique with its wide bridge which crosses to wetlands and the island bridge have you ever gone out there on a stressful day there is nothing like it to just walk around the trails and hear the birds and nature that surround you it is unbelievable that you can be in a place like this in the middle of a busy town these bridges have been in place for us to enjoy since April 2005 it has only been since 2023 that they have been blocked off and we have not and we have been kept out we were told that the project would be done in small doses but that every dock and bridge would be redone it is just shameful that since 2005 these docks and bridges have been left to go into such disrepair they should have been maintained properly and fixed as needed so we would not have ended up in this position of everything needed and replaced at the same time this park is not just an acres park it is a park that everyone in the city and it is very unique I don't think anyone would disagree with that statement I am asking on behalf of myself and my family to please support the grant to the reconstruction and preservation of the wide bridge at the equestrian park this park needs to be maintained just like all the other parks in our city I want to thank Trish for coming to a meeting that we had the other night because we did come to the conclusion that you know the wide bridge is very important just as much as the other bridge but to put all the money in the grant to get the wide bridge done first because of the wetlands and everything else would be kind of on the top list of priorities and I thank you guys for taking it so serious I mean our parks are I think we have more parks more beautiful parks than a lot of the other cities and that's why people from other cities seem to come and hog our pickleball courts and everything else that we I heard I think it was the needs and me but I think I was what councilmember anderson made the second all right councilmember andrew yes councilmember yes yes yes yes next up is item number three and councilmember fadgen and I both pulled it I'll let councilmember fadgen go first thank you just kind of a quick question so I guess this change order has to do with FDOT comments which is about $20,000 is it really adding 792 days to the contract please say no good evening Samira Jalan city engineer actually councilmember fadgen as our representative to the NPO you're aware that there was a long process around this project where throughout the process FDOT requested to move the project from the illustrative plan from MPO illustrative plan to the feasible plan with that said that time of contract like we're taking advantage of this change order just to add the time to the contract so it's just correcting the duration of the project taking advantage of this request what step it is in the process I'm sorry because of what step we're putting into the process moving the project from the illustrative like the project was kind of halted until the MPO had moved the project so that's the actual change order will not add that time it's correcting the duration of the project that's all I needed thank you director a couple questions and I apologize you and I didn't speak on this before I'd raised it with Mr. Neunamaker in the change order that is task one in the change order number two regarding bridge aesthetics it references a PowerPoint and presentations to Midtown Board Planning and Zoning Commission of over $4,300 as a cost for the task and a change order is this a charge for the PowerPoint presentation that was made as a conclusion you will see a PowerPoint presentation however there is a series of activities that gonna happen behind the scene in order to do the presentation that you're gonna see if this change order is approved first the consultant will prepare two to three options of the aesthetic number two graphical rendering of the aesthetic number three structural analysis because the material that's gonna be presented may impact the design of the project for example if brick is chosen let me just ask the question is it customary that for a project like this that if there's a that with a change order would come that type of cost for a presentation again it's not strictly a presentation it's a series of activities that gonna conclude a presentation including some structural analysis that will be summarized in the presentation so maybe the representation of the definition of the item wasn't clear or wasn't precise to speak about that particular request so the task in and of itself if it's maybe poorly described you're comfortable that it's an appropriate price for the task poorly described yes okay I wanted to raise another question it was that you know we we get lots of comments e-comments or comments via email and one particular one came from Mr. Wynn who I see is not here today and Mr. Wynn regularly speaks at our council meetings and in his comment he also questioned whether it was adding additional time to the project but one of the things that caught me was and I'm going to read the sentence and just ask you about it the sentence but it also appears to recommend an additional lane which will increase construction costs further induce more car traffic and even more heavily degrade the greenway experience the transportation path we should be putting our focus towards can you comment on that if I understood his question and I may have to follow up with him if that's what he was questioning during the review of the project by FDUT there was a request to implement a deacceleration lane leaving the bridge and merging to State Road 84 to give the drivers ample of time to merge safely into the State Road 84 that's the additional lane that I'm aware of I may need to speak to Mr. Nguyen if that's what he referenced if not then I may have follow up with you and he's not here and I can't ask him to respond but let me just ask you though in terms of the deacceleration lane that we're talking about will it will it his language was degrade the greenway experience so will it affect the greenway at all not at all not at all again the deacceleration lane is to implement a safe maneuver to but it won't take away from the greenway the greenway actually going to be improved part of this project with lighting and crosswalks that's how I understood as well so thank you very much appreciate the clarification I wanted to make sure to get on the record a response to his comments I think we already have motion to approve do we have a second hearing no further comments Ms. Beverell please call the roll yes yes yes yes yes next up we have item 4 and I believe it was Mr. Conklin that asked for item 4 to be pulled I have a motion on item 4 motion to approve second Mr. Conklin Dennis Conklin 4581 Northwest City Court this issue deals with the last election 2024 and is basically $42,000 years ago I was trying to get the city to save money by moving to the November congressional elections because it was at that time costing over $100,000 for the March elections and what I've seen that's taken place since that time is a couple of things back then plantation had 42 precincts they were small they were neighborhood they were compact and you could get everybody through a line in a day and they weren't using machines the elections were owned by we the people when they went to machines we no longer own our elections those machines are proprietary and they are owned and all the rights are by the companies that service them and they're there every day 365 at the supervisor elections today plantation has about 92,000 people back when we have 42 precincts we only have 46,000 people now not all of them are voting age but what should have been taking place is not a decrease because we went from 42 to 32 to 16 precincts we should have been doing just the opposite so what I'm wondering is can the city petition to have not 16 precincts would double the population that we had basically when I moved here in 1983 but double the number of precincts to 84 and return the elections back to we the people the president right now is asking for one day voting in person on paper hand count with voter ID and I believe that's the way we have to go because what's happened is they've gone from machine voting to extended voting times they call it election season now and since that time they've done away with the absentee ballot which is a request by somebody that isn't going to be here with an excuse to get a ballot mailed to them to vote by mail which is basically the interstate highway of voter fraud because basically the ballots just go out we have a lot of no-no's we have a lot of inactive on the Broward County registration rolls they're supposed to be purged they're not I get them every month from the secretary of state about 17% of the voter rolls in plantation are inactive I don't know the no-no's because the no-no's means they don't have an address I mean they don't have a driver's license and they don't have a social security number so I'm just putting this forward but I don't object to making the payments because we're saving money thank you Mr. Conklin thank you God bless seeing no further comments call the roll please Ms. Becker yes yes yes yes item number 11 was also pulled Mr. Conklin thank you Dennis Conklin 458 Northwest 6 court and just a reminder that I keep mentioning this that with the additional millage rate laid on the commercial and all property owners within the now CRA district we get TIF money that supersedes this millage rate by multiples multiples of 10 and I believe that we should basically zero out the millage rate for the gateway 7 week 1 they were spending $500 on waste and water week 2 $1,200 waste and water you're spending the gateway money basically on sprinkler systems so I encourage you to remove the additional millage rate because they're already paying the same property rates that everybody else is in the city and give them a little bit of breathing room we've had a small rollback but that really isn't good when you you've had 25 years of a CRA and the first three years recouped all of the stuff all of the money that you get from your millage rate and again superseding it by tens of factors so I'll yield back thank you any further comments any further discussion motion to approve second Ms. Beggar please call the roll Council Member Andreu yes Council Member Fajan yes Council Member Horland yes yes Council Member Einstein yes next up administrative items item 13 discussion regarding city employee discounts at the plantation preserve golf course and club and I see our parks director O'Toole director O'Toole thank you good evening council once again several weeks ago city administration asked parks and rec department to reach out to neighboring municipalities that have city owned golf courses to do a comparative study as to whether or not they offer employee discounts or retiree discounts the backup material that was provided with the agenda is a summary of what we found where basically most cities do not offer a specific employee discount they do charge the resident rate for active employees most most of them also did not offer a retiree discount with the exception of city of sunrise that gave the member rate to active employees as well as retirees that is the recommendation to follow suit with our neighboring cities but of course we're here to hear your feedback listen to your opinion one other area that we looked at was whether or not we would implement blackout periods during peak times and after we can look at that the system that we use can certainly do that but after speaking with guidance management they feel like once the members have their seven day advance tea time booking and then the regular public has five days which is what we're proposing employees would receive those peak times would be filled mostly with members so those are the recommendations but of course here to hear your feedback answer any questions you might have just to be clear when you're saying those are the recommendations and you're saying are neighboring cities yes you propose you put forward a city by city comparison of five cities we have two neighboring cities I'm sorry in Broward County Broward County cities that have municipal owned golf courses so you're putting it all for you don't have a recommendation as to which one because sunrise obviously does it different than Davie does I just wanted councilmember Andrea thank you I have a question about I'm assuming this is what is being proposed in the red and yellow those are our current public golf rates so you have a resident rate you've got a Florida resident rate and then an out of state rate so we're proposing that active employees would pay the plantation resident rate so after three o'clock there's no difference whether it's the weekend or the weekday is that accurate second I'm sorry can you repeat that after three o'clock the price does not change whether it's a weekend or a weekday that's correct that is correct and that's also how most other municipalities do that we try to compare the rates and to be honest with you they're all over the board but there usually is a morning and afternoon then a late afternoon rate okay so I did like the sunrise model okay and I would like to include some type of discount for our employees I'm curious to hear what my colleagues think but I think it's a great benefit to offer to staff and as was said earlier I think it only promotes the preserve even more so I am sensitive to what council member Fagin said a few weeks back when we had the discussion that you know I think there's a balance that we can achieve here so I don't know if that discount I didn't see a percentage for sunrise I don't know if it's 10% 20% but I did like their model of including retirees and employees in that discount okay I believe their member rate once you pay an annual membership you basically pay the cart fee and the cart fee in sunrise is I want to say $14 for 18 holes and $9 for 9 holes and they're a smaller course than us we can't really compare sunrise to the preserve but I believe their employees are only paying the cart fee when they go to play okay you know it's an enterprise fund to council member Fagin's point but I think that it encourages more business and as was stated earlier people are bringing other guests there it's bringing more recognition if you will to the preserve they're eating they're drinking so I think it still will at the end increase revenue overall so I like the sunrise model okay so my colleagues know I did chime in also so that I wasn't calling everybody out of order here so to my father's chagrin I do not play golf so I can't speak from any experience but I also do think that giving the incentive or giving the benefit or however we want to describe it to our to our employees is a positive I also think I don't have any I don't have any concerns or problems with giving a benefit also to our retirees I one of the questions that I had asked at our last meeting where we started this discussion was whether we had any data as to how many employees over any period of time you choose use the golf course or how many of our retirees have sought to obtain some benefit I mean do we have any of that data to understand what kind of effect it would have on the preserve so up until recently our tea time system of booking did not really capture the details of everyone that was playing so for example and it's changed moving forward but let's just say I'm going to play as an employee and I booked the tea time it would just reserve kind of a generic name for the other three individuals I would go in I would pay my portion and the other three would go in and pay their portion without really capturing who those other three people are I have some tea time guru booking people in the back with Joel and one of our other employees that has since changed that system so we're going to be able to more accurately moving forward capture the utilization of employees so at this point I really don't have that data so hearing that and having heard generally that that there hasn't been a large number of employees and or retirees that have used it that's also helpful for me in terms of this discussion in looking at the sunrise model I don't necessarily see a need for the food and restaurant discount when I think that it's an enterprise fund I understand that looking after the bottom line is extremely important there may be some interest in investing more in the golf course in the coming years so if we were if there was a consensus and we were to see some approval of a discounted rate for retirees and employees I'd be okay if we didn't go with the food restaurant discount I see that as a separate entity next up council member Anderson you just hit most of those points well both you did but I think you answered the courses that you have on the green sheet is that all the municipal courses in Broward I believe so yes as far so close enough that we got all the ones that responded and it's just about all of them yeah okay I got a silly question what is the definition of what do we count as a retiree do they have to reach a certain number of years in the city or a retirement age excuse me what is the pension just so it's on the record just turn on your thanks that was going to be one of my questions if we went down that path is the pension definition you know so you vest at a certain period of time depending on the pension I don't know if it's all the same but then you're allowed to draw your benefits when you hit the certain age so is that when you're a retiree right but they might have eight years a drop and it could be 10 years in and then not draw for like 15 years and then how do we manage that is one of my questions so I mean do they have to apply let's let councilman man Anderson finish thank you sorry so we don't know how many retirees have been taking advantage of it but we don't think it's a lot but I'm not sure I'm not sure I would like to hash out what we define as retiree and certainly the two gentlemen that are former fire chief and parks and rec if we had guys like that who invest their lives in our city I think there's no hands down they should get it but I would like to carve something out that really defines I'm leaning towards the sunrise model basically but I want a little more strings to it that they have to really have been here a while and so forth because we do not need the golf course to be healthy fiscally but this is great that if they're going to invest their lives here and they're going to go bring people and continue to do it like they said I think it's not only is it a perk for them it's a perk for our city to keep them vested in our city and the history they've had to keep that going I think that's worth it's priceless to me thank you council members and as a point of order before I call in council member Fajan is that since this is an administrative item if there's a certain consensus among the council as to how we would like to see this proposed we can put that forth so that it can be brought back to us again with something a little more concrete and then at that time if we want to make a motion or a resolution or whatever may be necessary I see Mr. Newell make up do you want me to move to Mr. Councilmember Fajan or can I have just a final thought the other thought I have is if we could have a trial period like this is just a thought while we're hashing this out that we put it in for a year or so because then we're going to have better data about how many retirees are using it and have you know because we're kind of going a little blind but I'm reasonably comfortable but that we don't put it in for a perpetuity we put it in for a certain time and it forces us to go back to it in a certain amount of time that's all I'll say Councilmember Fajan thank you I don't necessarily think sunrise model is the way to go I play at sunrise a lot because it's a short course and it only takes three hours and I have a very limited time I do like the summary doesn't include the retirees we need to have a discussion about that but you know part of the things I was thinking about regarding this is that up until very recently the course has been subsidized by the general fund it was not doing the allocation back for the administrative cost of the course and I forget how much that is is it $300,000 a year a little over $300,000 a little over $300,000 so it's not self-sustaining and I have some thoughts when we get to talking about the renovation about that there's three elements that I would like that we need to cover regarding the course and now my mind's going blank on the three it's the debt service obviously it's the course being able to pay its allocation and then it's the maintenance that's the three things if we're missing all three of those then there's a lot of residents are paying for the burden of the cough course so we can't lose sight of that now lose sight that this is self-sustaining right now it is but when we have debt service and we don't figure out a way to recover that because there's only so much you can charge for a round and my vision will be when we have this discussion is that we're going to go all in because there's 59,000 rounds going to that course so drawing more people to the course when it's already at over capacity I want to say it's designed for 40,000 rounds is that accurate does anybody know someone well let's not yell from the audience but what is it designed for do we know I forget I thought I heard the number at one point so I guess my comment is I don't have a problem with what the summary is here I think that we should look into offering the discounts to retirees what I would say about that is though like Councilmember Anderson said I was going to bring up the same point is what's the definition of a retiree it seems to me it would be impossible tasks to manage but if we're going to do it and I don't think there's a lot of retirees that are utilizing the course but I think that there probably needs to be some sort of registration thing where a card is probably given to them now I question guidance I've never been asked for my ID when I go to the golf course so I'm curious how much fees are we losing and this is a different issue how many fees are we using because they're not checking IDs they're just going off the word of whoever comes in now if they have a relationship with that person that's fine they know the person because they're a member I am not for discounts on the membership because the membership is the privilege to get two extra days to get your tea time in to get those prime tea times initially I was thinking we should black out the times but thinking about it and I think you restated the fact that because of those two extra days those prime tea times are probably going to be gobbled up before the five day tea times we'll be able to get to that point so to me I think what you laid out in these four bullet points in the summary is adequate with the addition of how are we going to define the retirement I think it needs to be a registration and then on a side note I think that we need to ask guidance to do a better job of checking IDs because I don't think those kids know who I am and I've never used that phrase because that's the death of whatever position you might be in but they just ask me if I'm resident and I say yes but honestly obviously just to your point on the card I know Joel and I have spoken about creating a specific card where you're going to be able to manage it you know it's just sort of like former retired plantation employee that would be for an employee as well as retiree but the discounts shouldn't go beyond the resident rate if we're going to decide to do that and I don't think there should be any discounts on the pro shop or the food it needs a restaurant is a restaurant you know they fail and right now it seems like we got a good chef in there and people are talking about it people are going to it and that's great but that's not necessarily forever so these four points plus those items I said regarding retirement is where I think that we should explore and I think that's fine just to clarify you're okay with the resident rate being the employee rate and retiree rate I think I'm okay with that okay I'll bring it up because I think that's different than what council member Andre you I don't like I don't like sunrise's model and to be completely honest sunrise's and I play there pretty often at least twice a month times I've played that's where I have played because it's not up to it's great for time it's not great for quality now they're doing a lot of work out there it looks like they're putting some effort into it but it's not a comparable entity to the preserve so councilmember hoyland thank you mr. president well it seems like the consensus for my colleagues is to go forth with a retiree discount and my concern has always been the management of it so I'm glad to hear that if we go forward with this you're considering a card when we define retiree I mean 15 years 20 years I think somebody's committed 20 years to the city but I raise this during strategic planning my concern is also and the card might eliminate this but an employee retiree in good standing because we know we've talked about it if somebody is given a constructive discharge retiree you're going to be fired and they choose retire that's not in my estimation a retiree in good standing so those would be some of my considerations I do concur with my colleagues who mentioned not giving the discount in the restaurant can I add a comment to what you're saying you're just interrupting everybody I can't help them I'm the only player out here but I think that's part of the application I would say to assess did they leave under good and again that's always been my concern management of it so that's where I am on that thank you so I think you have some consensus and I would want to also clarify that I agree that if we're not doing any type of discount towards the food the restaurant no reason to add the pro shop either I think we're talking about discounts for the playing golf that's what I think the request is I also look at it is that it's part of this discount idea is about our gratitude to our employees and it's our gratitude to our retirees and there's not always a lot of things that we can do the trinkets or the tchotchkes that are often given out that usually feel good giving them but the people that receive them are always like I'd rather have something of more substance and if there are people that will find this a positive benefit to working for our city and but I think I would like to hear just like you heard is that when you come back to us as defining retiree whether there has to be some discussion whether it's with legal whether it's with HR to make sure that it's leaving on good terms and if it's determined that there may be a certain number of years that you have to have retired if you only worked here for a year and then you retired after a year that may be insufficient to grant this benefit anything further from anything further from the dais so I think that you didn't have to do any of us have to so what we'll do is we'll bring this back in a policy format under a resolution because one of the biggest issues was the lack of clarity on this item we'll also come back I think there needs to be some administrative discretion to councilmember Horland's point with regard to retirees well you invest in 10 years you separate service okay you're a retiree technically in good standing but there could be other factors we've allowed folks to resign in lieu of termination there may be other factors where people have done things that are unacceptable but we need to be able to address those issues and I think the consensus is that we agree with that we are legal in doing so 100 percent now moving on to quasi judicial items we have item 14 pp 25 dash 0001 city attorney will you read the procedures for the quasi judicial hearing yes sir the city clerk will swear in all witnesses before speaking please state your name and whether you have been administered an oath any speaker may be cross examined if you refuse to be cross examined your testimony may not conducted in a courteous manner the material on the city clerk's agenda packet will be made a part of the record city staff will make the first presentation followed by presentations from the applicant any affected parties in the public elected officials may set reasonable time limits for speakers the hearing will then be closed and the matter decided the city council's decision will be delineated in its motion and rendered in writing by way of a development order resolution or ordinance evidencing its decision city council may also decide to continue the matter to a designated time to allow for additional research or review thank you very much and city clerk if you'd like to swear on the witnesses is anybody else who believes that they may be testifying please stand now okay thank you do you swear or affirm that the evidence you're about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay do we have a one moment councilman hoyland i don't know if my colleagues need to see the presentation i'd like to make a motion to approve second if the consensus is there anybody who wishes no i don't know if we need a motion um do we need a motion on that or it's just consensus that we don't need to hear the presentation um you don't need a motion on that um it would be a motion to approve okay okay uh is there any um mr alba works so hard on those presentations uh we have a motion uh is there anybody from the public that wishes to speak on the item the staff wants to know seeing none uh and any further comments from the dais seeing none um i have no problem skipping the presentation except i can house member anderson yes you're recognized thank you sir the the height from the the space from the address to shops at plantation is a pretty big gap i don't know if we can just shave i don't know what distance that is shave a foot out of that make this eleven a left i don't know how it would look can you just show that one slide with the uh page uh five slide five page five of the powerpoint yeah or just move if we or just move that if we could close that gap obviously you don't want the numbers too close to the words because their people are driving but it seems like it's a little big of a gap and we're already going 12 feet high could we go 11 and a half and take away six inches something like that i don't know if that's worth sweating over but it's a 12 and high sign that's pretty high mr oper do you want to respond to this or do you want the applicant to um i i can respond but they can also it's their proposal so go ahead i believe you can shave off the height and it would you know still be proportional uh so if the applicant wishes to respond regarding whether there's a particular purpose for the the space there good evening council uh marcos puente plantation square 1797 north university drive um i i agree with the suggestion i'm i'm okay with that reducing by one foot a whole foot i because i can't i don't know the scale of what space there is in there i don't i i would i would defer to staff working out with you or whatever um to just make it look because you don't want the numbers to be too close to the words but i think you could still close that gap i don't know if that's six inches eight inches ten inches whatever just make a reasonable shaving of the distance to i just asked a question um before you sit down is that the the the sign distance that you have before us do you did you want it was there a particular reason why um i mean i i don't to me it doesn't matter one way or the other but i i try it and defer that if there's not a reason that uh it's contrary to our um to our code was there a reason why you wanted the space there no not necessarily okay so enough said then fine thank you very good uh we have a we have a motion and and it's been seconded any further comments from the dais any further comments from yes city clerk please call the roll beautiful sign council member andrea yes council member fadgen yes council member horland yes council member anderson yes remember reinstein yes thank you uh next we have up are there any board committee appointments council member anderson for my rotating seat on the parks and rec advisory board i would like to appoint phyllis lind who was formerly on and rotated off so i'm rotating her back on do we have a second second hearing no discussion city clerk please call the roll yes council member fadgen yes council member horland yes council member anderson yes yes comments by the mayor just one big one library new exhibit opening saturday march actually two uh saturday march 1st celebrating florida 180 years 10 times high uh plantation historical museum march 1st 10 a.m um speakers will be speaking throughout the the series and scottish festival also coming up so all good stuff i will not be there so thank you mayor nothing further we have comments by council members council member fadgen's up first i have a lot to talk about but then council member fadgen is not up first go ahead council member i'll save it for another time good night council member morland um colleagues i'd like to see if we can get a consensus to direct the city attorney to um perhaps take a look at our rules of procedure so we don't have the awkwardness that we had now i know that when we had talked about times starting cra meeting and the council my concern when we made that um that decision was if we had someone that was coming for a time certain and i think what we saw tonight was and we oftentimes we have a long break between the crma meeting and the council meeting and then it's like herding cats to get everybody back on the dais so um my two questions are can we set the meeting time for say six o'clock and then do the rolling and roll right into and i'm guess i'm asking the city attorney roll into the council meeting and the other question is could we then start the pledge of legions and the um opening remarks at that six o'clock time you know when we start the first meeting so i'd like to ask the city attorney first and then hear what everybody has to say i think the answer to the questions are yes okay that's up to you okay when you want to do the pledge okay your order um the challenge as i understand in the past has been from an uh from a um website standpoint of noting and we had discussed that um right president reinstein and uh april and i discussed it before the meeting to try to figure out a way to show it where it needs to be posted that the council meeting would commence at the conclusion of the cra meeting so i think we're going to try to do that okay yeah if we can figure out a way to do that and i i think there's might be a consensus up here because it's just becoming you know um too confusing i think for the public and so however we can do that and i know that was part of our discussion in the beginning uh and that's why we did it that way but it's um it's become quite awkward so all right i appreciate that um just a couple of um updates by our legislative delegation um had met with uh they're going back for uh the start of session next week so they were meeting with the school board they went with the broward league and the uh top of our discussion was the proposal to do away with our ad valorem taxes that's coming out of tallahassee sovereign immunity um i know we're just all shaking our head um i'm going to give you just a quick example i was on an advocacy call with the florida league of cities the other day and the city of bartow um the mayor said our ad valorem revenue is 5.9 million our police department cost us 7.2 so he said now the other thing they've been trying to do is utility grabs they don't want anyone transferring from the utility he said if we were not able to transfer 9 million from our electric utility the city of bartow would be bankrupt so you know it's one thing to talk about us when we have a 271 million dollar budget when we're really looking at some of these smaller municipalities obviously would impact us but that's the story we're trying to tell up in tallahassee and when we're meeting with the legislators so um sovereign immunity um we've been talking to miss morris about that they want to raise the caps to 1 million and and 3 million you can have a good conversation with her about how much we have in reserves to pay our current claims two claims would wipe us out so there's a lot to consider so there'll be a lot of battles ahead wanted to give you an update on that um you did hear that the county commission um passed the expansion among our kill the um solid waste authority last friday did not feel that we should weigh in on it um i have my personal feeling i feeling i don't think it should be expanded but they are going to have to go through the permitting um process and if we still have an environmental uh protection agency then um we will see what happens um with that um i just also wanted to mention i'll be giving a proclamation to the red cross on monday uh they invited me up to uh toward their logistics center up in deerfield beach um i just wanted to say i had asked them for the last four years how many cases they had assisted with in city plantation because i think that's something that we don't always know is assisted with 29 cases 26 fires they helped 95 individuals including 35 children and 14 seniors so i think you know we often don't see the things that we that they do they do send an update update so i'll be honored to um present this on behalf of the city on monday and i'll report back and let you know about the logistics center and um i'm going to mention where we were this morning when you'd give your update elocution okay okay well council member andrew and i were at um plantation park elementary for their annual elocution which is always uh good for the soul with kindergarten and first grade i'm going to go back tomorrow but it's uh it's a wonderful morning and i'm glad we could both be there this morning so thank you mr president for the extra time so councilman holand you mentioned about the um about the timing from our cra to our city council meeting and um you meant you kept moving very quickly so we didn't actually stop for a second to see if there was some consensus on it um and i know we've brought it up before and there wasn't the last time it sounds like maybe we we've changed although i've heard you for the first time mention about whether or not to move the pledge of allegiance and whether it's the invocation or the opening remarks to the beginning i hadn't thought about that um i am definitely in favor of um identifying that the city council meeting will begin immediately following the cra uh there was some discussion as mr ezra mentioned with um with with ms beggarow that on how to identify it on the website because that was the concern that the system didn't allow her to do it we think that there is a way to do it if we so choose where um it would say 6 pm for the cra and 6 pm for the city council meeting in the time slot but there would be a description that would say that the city council meeting will begin immediately following the cra and the reason for that was um as ms beggarow explained was that the way that the system works to plug in on the website you must put in a time so you'd have to so the the six and six would just show would be really the holder and then it would describe it next to city council that it would begin immediately following the cra and on the actual notices um that would be utilized it would indicate that information in more detail so um i think it is we're taking a a little bit of time right now just to um further discuss this to see where everybody stands on it um councilmember andrea i know you wanted to jump in on that point no i would thank you um i think it's a great suggestion it would make our meetings more efficient and um more organized for the visitors if you will that we're bringing in or the you know the people were asking to come and lead the pledge or or whatever else we're asking uh my question is this so we won't touch workshops so if we have a five o'clock workshop we're going to leave the workshop alone then at six the we would lead off with the pledge and that council members comments go into cra it would be posted for six and then you still think we should post six for the council meeting the exact same time it will i guess my question really is for mr ezra so if we posted 6 10 and the meeting didn't start at 6 10 is that a problem if we still have that note that states you know no that would not be a problem so i wouldn't recommend posting the exact same time i think there should be some 6 10 or 6 15 and then still have that statement that upon the conclusion of the cra the regular council meeting will begin councilmember fadgen i think tonight the confusion was is that the you know there was a late change to the time that was allocated the cra meeting i think what happened tonight doesn't happen very often so i to what i think what you were saying councilmember andreo is i think we should put a time holder but put a note on there that the cra will start immediately after our council will start immediately after the cra um but with an s a time estimate 6 45 to something to that extent because i do feel like sometimes and the problem is is that you're trying to coordinate someone to come at 6 10 and now we're starting at 6 45 so that created a whole bunch of havoc um if if you knew last week that it was 6 45 or even a couple weeks ago then then we would not have had the problem that we had tonight so i really don't think we have to do a lot i think we should put a place order of how long we think the cra is going to take because 95 of the time the cra is going to take 10 minutes so i don't think we need to recreate the wheel um i don't think it should be done part of you know pledge and all that stuff should be done part of the cra because a lot of people start coming they don't care about the cra they come the council meeting so i think when you're bringing in a civic group or a nice saxophonist um uh they're coming at that time so i i i i'm okay with us just starting immediately after at the end of the cra we'll just put a time that an estimate of when we think that's gonna when we're gonna be starting i'm fine with whatever's most efficient i think that we've just got to get the efficiency back because it's it's hard we've had times where there been a 10 15 minute gap um you know between our start times whether it was a workshop and it's just and and you brought up workshops so we've had workshops that end early so we've got to consider that as well because then we have a half hour gap and it's just hard getting everybody it's hard sometimes getting the audience back can we have that same um statement if you will when we have a workshop so could we say workshop because i think our next meeting we have a workshop if i'm not mistaken correct in two weeks so could we say that our cra meeting will begin at the conclusion of the workshop or does it have to be time certain again i think it's a function of what the city clerk can post to identify what is the schedule for the evening yeah right right now i will tell you i would suggest that we uh we leave the workshop time certain alone and we give the time certain for the uh for the cra and the immediately to follow the only reason why the the same time was because we wanted to avoid how much time would be the gap if you're only putting 6 10 then there's never going to be that much of a gap if you're giving more time then it it it doesn't help us because people are are thinking it's starting later so that would be the reason why you do the i don't disagree with if you do the pledge first and you do all those first that will help you move move along very quickly um but maybe we need some more thought um into this because it seems like um it seems like we we still have some questions so i think we'll we'll leave it alone for today and um and we'll we'll continue with um council member anything further no okay councilmember anderson um i was out of town uh celebrating my my daughter's wedding in savannah georgia mazel tov my son married in november my daughter married in february it was beautiful weather beautiful city wonderful family friends it was just flawless and very happy dad here there were some little tears and all that but overall mostly joy um i am volunteering at the scottis festival this saturday uh nigel mcdonald who's our bagpiper for relay and many of our city events we all know nigel he lives right in my neighborhood right in plantation plantation resident runs it so come on out to heritage park this weekend saturday starts at nine thanks councilmember and joy thank you uh just a reminder i know that when marcia ellison was here the last two weeks ago uh she told us all about the naacp hosting an evening with black judges and that is tomorrow at 6 30 at mount herman amy church and they will feature 17 black judges that are in broward county so everybody is invited to attend that also uh i mentioned it earlier during the presentation but monday march 3rd a meeting to discuss broward estates elementary is being held at 6 pm and that actually could have an effect on plantation elementary school and so i know we all got the we received the emails but it didn't you might have kind of disregarded it because you said oh it's broward estates but um i think the plan could absolutely impact plantation elementary school if you are able to attend and um the chamber is celebrating plantation with a moonlight concert and business expo this saturday march um next saturday march 8th from 5 to 8 30 at the fountains uh also that we'll be doing daylight savings time so don't forget that spring forward on march 9th um and i want to also just point out to our muslim community they will begin ramadan uh starting february 28th friday so may your fast be enlightening for all of those who acknowledge ramadan that concludes all of my announcements thank you thank you and a few things i want to share this morning was the greater for lateral chamber of commerce resilient broward economic strategies and solutions for our future and i had a chance to attend that with the mayor and with miss morris um there was a a lot of interesting but somewhat scary things about um the about climate about flooding um but it was it was very informative and i think that uh our city benefited by having um the the mayor and carol there as well so that's one the second is right after that i had the opportunity to go over to uh the casey wright building and there was working together to serve students and families it was a forum for community partners sponsored by the parent community involvement task force and i was very happy that one of our educational advisory board members jesse valenzuela was there she serves on the task force and it was a very interesting discussion to and to see how many community partners there are that are working with our schools and they were happy to see that there was representation from our city and other cities to let those partners know that we're a partner for for them as well a couple other things that i want to make sure we get we celebrate south plantation wrestling team place number two at districts and i want to make sure to congratulate coach badillo and his wrestlers they were very happy about that we also had american heritage special congratulations to the eight graduating seniors from american heritage um i told them i'd i'd read their names so very quickly jillian malief jenna johnson natalia dorn jordan norwood courtney caruso catherine kaya annabella scarlett samantha via verde american heritage won the class for a girls soccer state championship and not only did they win the state championship but they are three peaters they won three years in a row and uh it is the eighth state championship under head coach cindy marcial so i want to give them congratulations and last but certainly not least um you've heard us recognize in the past um astin bright from our fire department and i want to make sure to acknowledge that it just came out that um astin will be receiving volunteer firefighter of the year for the from the florida state firefighters association uh and it's a it's a statewide award he's going to be recognized along with a career firefighter jason padden from riviera beach and the service will be at the capitol on april 21st and april 22nd and it's my understanding that this is plantation fire departments in the history of the department it's their third win for firefighter of the year so astin will join dave casey and robin russell and i want to particularly thank our city administration and our fire department and chief todd for their commitment and support for astin and for his work here and in israel because that's being recognized by this by the state as well thank you everybody for a great meeting 854 and we are you